LAUNCESTON’S Pam Miners recently completed The Three Peaks Challenge, raising over £2,000 for Children’s Hospice South West.

Held over the Saturday and Sunday of September 14 and 15, Pam walked up and down Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales, which are the highest mountains in their respective countries.

So what made her decide to do it, and choose CHSW?

Pam said: “I felt like I wanted to challenge myself, I’m not getting any younger so I decided to go for it full hog.

“I hold plant sales up at Maunders where I work and I’ve always done it to help Children’s Hospice South West, so I thought I might as well help them with this as well.”

Pam prepared by clocking up the miles.

She said: “I did a lot of coast path walking, and a bit on the moors, but mainly on the coast path.

“I walked most of the North Cornwall coast path from Welcome Mouth to Port Isaac and also a bit of the south.”

Pam left Launceston on Friday morning, and drove up to Exeter before flying to Manchester and then on to Glasgow, which is where she was picked up by organisers Global Adventures and taken to a youth hostel just outside of Fort William at the bottom of Ben Nevis, the first of the three mountains needing to be scaled.

Pam said: “Once we got there we had our evening meal, catching up with everybody. There were 27 of us in total, doing it for various charities from all over the UK.

“Among those 27 were fellow Launceston lady Claire Fishleigh and St Austell’s Richard Hurst, who were also walking for CHSW. I met with them at Glasgow Airport.”

Pam completed the challenge in under 15 hours.

She said: “As much as you prepare you start to listen to other people. I’m not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination. You do the training but you wonder whether you’re fit enough to do it. It was a case of walking at a pace and keeping it up. Thankfully I managed to surprise myself and do that. So it wasn’t as bad as I expected, even though the weather was totally against us.

“It started off dry but we were told to expect to get wet and there’d be 35/40mph winds, but by the time we got to the top of Ben Nevis, there were 60mph gusts.

“We were the last organised group to be allowed to go to the top of the mountain that day.”

Once back down again, which took just under six and a half hours, the group got changed, had a hot drink and then were transferred down to Scafell, which was an evening walk.

Pam said: “We started at 8.45pm and that was another windy walk. Once we did that, which took four and a half hours, we got on the minibus and headed down to Snowdon. We started that at 6.24am on the Sunday morning.

“Once we’d finished I was absolutely elated and the sun came out just as we were finishing, which made it a bit better.

“Global Adventures then took us to a local hotel where they surprised us with some food and then a medal presentation before taking us back to Chester.

“I then got a taxi back with a couple to Manchester and then flew back to Exeter.”

Pam was keen to praise her employers and the local community for their support which has seen £2,613.05 go to CHSW.

She said: “Maunders have been really good. They let me hold a coffee morning here and an extra plant sale on a Saturday morning where they let me take over outside at the front of the store, and also allowed me to put up sponsor forms!

“To raise over £2,600 was just brilliant. My initial target was £1,000. When I realised how much I had raised, I was delighted. Local businesses donated prizes and those who didn’t have anything suitable donated.

“I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone for their donations and to the hospice for their support.”

Kiley Pearce, events fundraiser for Children’s Hospice South West, said: “We are all extremely proud of Pam for completing the Three Peaks Challenge. It’s a tough event and she had some challenging weather conditions but she did brilliantly. Thank you to everyone who sponsored Pam, your donations really will make a difference here at Little Harbour children’s hospice.”